Meet the Team – Jeremy Lakey

Aric — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:50:24 +0000

President of Lakey and Associates doesn’t want you to know he’s the President of Lakey and Associates. In fact, he thrives on being anything but. There’s a humility that makes any who meet him believe that he’s your regular guy. That is, until you dig below the surface. And what you find then is one of the more interesting people you’ll ever come across. Granted, his adoration for kilts and uncanny knowledge of food and cigars is a tip-off, but with each passing time I visit the office, he accidentally mentions something else that makes him dangerously intriguing.

In part 01 of our Meet the Team, I sat down with him at one of his favorite restaurants in Tulsa – Siegi’s – to come clean about his home brewing, strong Scottish roots and his love of Loveless Boots.

Let’s be honest – you’re not a regular business owner.

Nope. Started as a musician when i was a kid. Figured out that I’d make more money writing software and never looked back. Ok, maybe that’s not true, I do miss the stage and dozens of fans. Spent 15 years as a salaryman working for large corporations in a R&D capacity, added a few patents to my resume, then decided to go all Datsusara (脱サラ) and find work on my own. Clients kept asking for more and more help, so I talked to some very smart people that I had worked with in the past (most of whom I share the inventor credit on those patents) and convinced them to become freelancers as well. Lakey & Associates is a collection of those independently-minded individuals.

Where to start… maybe with the boar hunting?

Ever had wild boar? Tasty. It’s like pork-squared. Intensely pork. Delicious. Plus, being in the woods right before the sun comes up, and everything wakes up and comes alive is a religious experience in and of itself. And, hey, free meat.

And then there’s the foodie in you. BBQ. home brewing. take us through this.

BBQ, taking cheap tough cuts of meat and making them fantastic. It’s the cheap Scot blood in me that draws me in I believe. (Rumor has it the etymology of “tight-fisted” originated from a Scotsmans ability to wet a fistful of oats carried in their sporran in a stream without letting any escape.) Same with homebrew. I like the good stuff, the $16 for 4 bottle stuff that restaurants charge you $15-$20 a glass for. I can make two cases of that myself for $40 of ingredients. Expensive tastes, hate spending the cash on it. Sourdough is another one, $4 for a loaf of bread??? C’mon, it’s flour, water, and salt. Make a sourdough starter like your great-grandmother cared for, it’ll last you decades and you’ll have fresh baked bread whenever, and it makes the house smell wonderful. Due to the inexpensive nature of BBQ and sourdough bread (if you’re smoke/bake your own), I can feed someone for under a buck a head, which makes for a lot of grateful homeless people down at the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless when it’s our turn to cook for them.

And then… there’s the Loveless boots.

Yeah, guilty. You know, much of our clothing is made in China and other places of cheap labor, by people who have clothes made (or make themselves) specifically tailored for them. So the people making our mass produced practically disposable stuff wear clothes are made for the long haul. Having a pair of boots or shoes that are cobbled specifically to fit your foot makes them a joy to wear. Like walking on clouds. And they last, my first pair is going on 15 years now. Spread that cost over 15 years and it becomes not only reasonable, but downright thrifty.

Renaissance Man does spring to mind, no?

Maybe it’s just I get bored, stuff comes easy and I move on to the next thing. I prefer to do for myself in most cases and acquire the knowledge necessary to do for myself. Sooner or later someone in a position of power is going to do something stupid and press a button they shouldn’t, and the world will become a very different places. If that happens on my watch, I want to be in a position where I can do what is necessary to secure the future for me and mine.

The Jeep. the Jeeping.

I Love off-roading. Hopping in the Jeep and making my own trail, or driving up a river far enough that I’m alone and finding a quiet place to camp. Or driving around town with the top and doors off. Snow is great too, throw a tow rope into the Jeep and crawl around town pulling people out of snowbanks and out of messy situations.

Not to mention you’re a father. And a husband.

Kids – Who would’ve thunk it? They’re awesome, wouldn’t trade them for anything. Constant source of amusement because they both think like me and keep me on my toes. We have a rule in the house that if a kid manages to out-think us, they don’t get in trouble, and it’s happened a time or two. Both of my kids learned how to pick a household door lock by the time they were 3.

How in the world do you have time to run a business?

How would I have time not to? I went from working 12+ hours a day as a salary man (and only getting paid for 8), locked down at a desk in an office, to making my own schedule. Sure it’s hectic at times, but making my own schedule and relying on other very smart people to help carry the load works for me. I’ll gladly trade the stress of wondering if some higher-up will lay me off because that makes their bonus pool bigger for worrying if I’m doing a good enough job for companies to contract us for more work. Our biggest problem is getting all the work we have done. Also, I can be at home when I want to be, mixing up a sourdough starter, watching the smoker, picking at the guitar or poking at the piano, and being around while my kids grow up while I’m putting in hours for clients.

Fascinating? To say the least.

But this should also be fair warning for any of those who might walk into the offices of Lakey LLC.

Are they a thriving Tulsa business? Yes they are.

But if the President is anything to go on, they’re also capitalizing on the clandestine cloaks of a life mantra that we all wish we could live by.

Work hard.

Live well.

And embrace your curiosity of life.

[End]

We’re looking for HELP!

jeremy — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:06:20 +0000

Business is good. One might say booming. We’re looking for good help. Seriously, we don’t even have time to keep this site up to date.

If that’s you, email us or call us!

Two New Solutions by Lakey & Associates Launched!

jeremy — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:49:06 +0000

The Joel Osteen Ministries and Lakewood Church websites were launched this last week with a Solutions by Lakey & Associate upgrade! The shopping cart is now powered by LRMS, an ERP Solution developed by Lakey & Associates based on Microsoft Dynamics, Sharepoint, and Silverlight. From placing the order or donation on the web, to submitting credit cards to inventory managment and fulfillment, the order is under the care of SLA software. The new cart matched the 30-day maximum load with half the previous web-front end servers!

The SLA Jeep has been wrapped!

jeremy — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:05:12 +0000

Look for it driving around town!

In the News!

doug — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:23:33 +0000

Another Solution by Lakey & Associates:
Joel Osteen’s ‘America’s Night of Hope’ One of the Most Watched Faith-Based Live Events Online
“over 115,000 people live online, ranking as one of the highest viewed online live faith-based social media events in the history of the web…”

2010 Web Award for Joel Osteen Ministries:
The Web Marketing Association is proud to present this 2010 WebAward for outstanding achievement in Web Development.

Flipside+

doug — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:36:03 +0000

LRMS

doug — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:21:53 +0000

WWW.LAKEWOOD.CC

doug — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:20:29 +0000

WWW.JOELOSTEEN.COM

doug — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:19:37 +0000

CalcWiki

doug — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:18:18 +0000